Asteroid is due to make flyby of Earth
By Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.com
An asteroid rarely gets close enough to Earth to be bright enough to see with a backyard telescope or binoculars, but islanders might see one tomorrow night, said University of Hawaii astronomer David Tholen.
The closest approach of asteroid 2007 TU24 to Earth will be about 334,000 miles, about 1.4 times the distance of Earth to the moon, at 10:46 p.m. tomorrow, "for 27 seconds," he said. "It will be far in the northern part of the sky and moving very rapidly."
At its brightest, it may be out of range for typical binoculars, he said. But observers with a small telescope should be able to see it, he said. "It will be easy to identify just by pointing and waiting for something to move. It won't take very long to notice the motion."
The asteroid is estimated to be 500 to 2,000 feet long. It was discovered last October by the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona.
It won't affect the Earth, said Don Yeomans, manager of the Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The next time an asteroid about the same size will approach that close to Earth will be in 2027, according to NASA. But Tholen said, "Between now and 2027, we will probably find something new that we don't know about that will come closer."
Might be time for a few around here to get their black & white tennis shoes out......[;)]
quote:
Originally posted by Breadburner
Asteroid is due to make flyby of Earth
By Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.com
An asteroid rarely gets close enough to Earth to be bright enough to see with a backyard telescope or binoculars, but islanders might see one tomorrow night, said University of Hawaii astronomer David Tholen.
The closest approach of asteroid 2007 TU24 to Earth will be about 334,000 miles, about 1.4 times the distance of Earth to the moon, at 10:46 p.m. tomorrow, "for 27 seconds," he said. "It will be far in the northern part of the sky and moving very rapidly."
At its brightest, it may be out of range for typical binoculars, he said. But observers with a small telescope should be able to see it, he said. "It will be easy to identify just by pointing and waiting for something to move. It won't take very long to notice the motion."
The asteroid is estimated to be 500 to 2,000 feet long. It was discovered last October by the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona.
It won't affect the Earth, said Don Yeomans, manager of the Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The next time an asteroid about the same size will approach that close to Earth will be in 2027, according to NASA. But Tholen said, "Between now and 2027, we will probably find something new that we don't know about that will come closer."
Might be time for a few around here to get their black & white tennis shoes out......[;)]
And it's up to Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck to save the day!
We are DOOOOMMMEDDD..............
Jerry Bruckheimer would have a field day with this....
Looks like Earth will get a close shave. Maybe it'll trim off some of Earths's whiskers.[xx(]
Where's the Heaven's Gate Cult when you need 'em?
quote:
Originally posted by HazMatCFO
Where's the Heaven's Gate Cult when you need 'em?
That's why I referenced the B&W tennis shoes....To answer your question they are dead.....[:D]
There's an old sci-fi book called Lucifer's Hammer that postulates what would happen if an asteroid impacted in the south Pacific. If I recall right, the tsunami would be about a mile high when it reached southern California. There was a hilarious bit about 2 scientists on one of the Sunday morning shows using their slide rules (yeah, it's THAT old!)to calculate the energy released, both of them utterly oblivious to the destruction it would cause as they were lost in the math.
I have a copy squirreled away at work.
If I had a triangular space craft with a line shooting cannon (beeeyu) I'd totally rock that asteroid. I bet I could even get it's little resulting friends if I hate 2 or 3 lives left.
I hope it hits somewhere near here without causing any real damage...maybe like in one of those detention ponds along Mingo Creek.
It would be an awesome tourist attraction.
I'm hoping for Civic Center or OTC.
Maybe the City Hall building? Or it could clear the East End for us. Wow, this could end well. Maybe I had better recall my asteroid fighter.
quote:
Originally posted by inteller
I'm hoping for Civic Center or OTC.
You are such an asteroid.